The iconic fashion designer, who steered Chanel away from certain failure over the last three decades, has been praised as a visionary genius, the like of which we will never see again after he died in a Paris hospital on Tuesday February 19.

It's believed he had been secretly battling pancreatic cancer.

German-born Karl was as large in life as he was in his Chanel designs, opting for a signature uniform of fingerless gloves, a black suit and ponytail whenever he appeared in public.

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Karl's colourful life revealed - including his many jaw-dropping controversies (Image: Reuters)

"For my professional credibility, it was good to be able to prove that I am capable of creating transformations, not only with my designs but also in my own appearance," he wrote in the Guardian in 2004.

"The boots, the shirts, the black trousers – the whole panoply – represented a sort of camouflage. It worked perfectly and I lived very well in those outfits – or rather behind them. The dark glasses, the fan – they were like a wall between the world and myself."

And he was just as well known for his many controversial statements, always knowing exactly how to hit the headlines with jaw-dropping comments.

In 2010 he admitted to hiring "high-class" sex workers, telling Vice magazine that he never had sex with people he actually loved and insisting prostitution led to a lower crime rate.

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"I admire porn," he said at the time. "I admire porn actors. Frustration is the mother of crime, and so there would be much more crime without prostitutes and porn movies...[but] I personally only like high-class escorts.

"I don't like sleeping with people I really love. I don't want to sleep with them because sex cannot last, but affection can last forever. I think this is healthy. And for the way the rich live, this is possible. But the other world, I think they need porn."

Lagerfeld also told the magazine that he liked to watch people take drugs, adding: "I don't drink, I don't take drugs, I've never smoked in my life."

In late 2000, Lagerfeld decided to lose weight after becoming frustrated that he could not fit into his own designs.

Karl had also been threatened with legal action in 2013 over remarks he made about plus-sized women, after claiming: "No one wants to see curvy women on the runway."

He'd told French TV channel D8: "The hole in social security, it's also [due to] all the diseases caught by people who are too fat."

Women's rights groups in France reacted in fury, demanding a right to reply and one pressure group filed a defamation claim against the Chanel designer.

Lagerfeld stuck by his exclusive comments throughout his final years - even throwing shade at Adele for being "a little too fat".

Lagerfeld was slammed for his comments about curvy women (Image: Getty Images)

He was later forced to apologise and claimed his remarks had been taken out of context.

But he was back making ugly remarks about Kate Middleton's sister Pippa Middleton, telling the Sun: "I don't like the sister's face. She should only show her back."

He then clarified to Grazia magazine that he hadn't meant it, adding: "I only meant I don't think her make-up is right; she has a roundish face and round eyes and she should pick another make-up for the eyes. I think Carole [Middleton] is very sexy. I think the mother is sexier than the daughters."